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Infanticide cases among 2008 Cape Fear homicides

Robert Marshall Sr. holds a photo of his son, Robert Lee Marshall Jr., 23, while standing in the driveway of his home. Robert Marshall Jr. left his parents' home March 5 in the truck parked behind his father. The 23-year-old planned to go into the Air Force before being killed that evening in an attempted armed robbery. He was shot in the upper body and police found him lying in the road in the 1300 block of Marstellar Street. In late March, Wilmington police arrested and charged four Wilmington men in connection with the fatal shooting.

Published: Monday, December 29, 2008 at 7:02 p.m.

Last Modified: Monday, December 29, 2008 at 7:17 p.m.

Homicides didn’t increase in Wilmington and its neighboring counties in 2008. It was a normal year.

Still, this year 23 people have been killed in homicide cases in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties as well as the City of Wilmington. Some were gunned down in the neighborhoods where they grew up, and several others were killed in their homes.

Two of the dead – Samya Miracle Dyer-Tindall of Wilmington and Logan VanDyke of New Hanover County – were infants killed by one of their parents, authorities allege.

Other victims like Tarica Pulliam and Sabya Monike Jacobs were mothers in their 20s, shot by men with criminal records. Of the homicides, 13 occurred in Wilmington, two in New Hanover County, seven in Brunswick County, and one in Pender County.

Chief Deputy Charles Miller of the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office said the detectives who work homicide cases get to know the victims’ families and see the pain the crimes cause.

“We haven’t forgotten them, and we won’t forget them,” said Miller, who has worked as a homicide detective. Of Brunswick County’s seven homicides, deputies are still seeking suspects in just one – the Oct. 20 shooting death of Mark Deegan Johnson of Leland. Miller says detectives follow leads in that case every day.

The Wilmington Police Department has closed eight of its 13 homicide cases. In both of this year’s homicides in New Hanover County, sheriff’s deputies have their suspects. And in Pender County, sheriff’s deputies have issued arrest warrants for two men they suspect shot a Wilmington man and then fled the country.

Wilmington and New Hanover County

Sabya Monike Jacobs

Sabya Monike Jacobs smiled often and was nice to most everyone she met, said Celestine Bristel-Johnson, who raised Jacobs since she was 2 weeks old.

Jacobs was fatally wounded Jan. 5, at 10:49 p.m., when she was shot while sitting in the front passenger seat of a Cadillac parked near the intersection of Meares and South Ninth streets.

Wilmington police say the 20-year-old mother was a bystander caught in an escalating cycle of violence involving two groups of young men. They started feuding early New Year’s Day, and it continued over several days with the rivals shooting from cars or at each other’s homes. One of the young men involved in that dispute was the driver of the Cadillac, according to police.

After Jacobs’ death, WPD Chief Ralph Evangelous said if witnesses to the earlier crimes had come forward, police could have intervened before the violence escalated to murder.

Six young men have been convicted of various charges in connection with Jacobs’ death.

Faheem Diaab

Donald Sanders feels like he lost two cousins in one day in 2008. Rasheed Diaab, 28, has been in jail since Jan. 17, charged with murder, and his older brother, Faheem Diaab, 38, is gone forever.

Police say Rasheed shot Faheem once in the chest with a handgun during an argument at the family home on East Stewart Circle.

Faheem Diaab was the oldest of five siblings and had two sons. He served in the U.S. Army and won a tough man competition in Wilmington.

Sanders said when he was growing up he looked up to Faheem, who treated him like a younger brother.

“He was a real good person,” Sanders said, adding that Faheem was always willing to help out friends and neighbors in the Turnkey and Creekwood communities.

“Hope all is well,” Sanders said, pointing to the sky, thinking of Faheem. Then, he said, “I love both my cousins.”

Jevorne Quaine Valentine

Early Feb. 22, officers responded to the corner of 10th and Campbell streets and found 22-year-old Jevorne Quaine Valentine dead.

Nine months later, a final suspect surrendered to police to face robbery and murder charges in connection with Valentine’s death.

Those charged are David Adrian Crummy, 20, and Andre Montrell Session, 19, both of Wilmington, as well as Norman Ramel McKenny, 19, of New York City.. A fourth suspect is also charged, though WPD hasn’t identified him because he was under 16 at the time of the shooting.

Robert Lee Marshall Jr.

Family members say Robert Lee Marshall Jr. headed out shopping after work on March 5 and never returned.

Police found him just after 9 p.m. in an industrial area near 13th and Marstellar streets, shot in the upper body and bleeding. He died soon after.

Police suspect Marshall was lured to Eighth and Marstellar streets and shot in a botched attempt to steal marijuana. Four teens have been charged in connection with his death.

Marshall, 23, was a graduate of Hoggard High School and had taken classes at Cape Fear Community College. He worked as a cook at Ruby Tuesday and planned on joining the U.S. Air Force.

Friends and family have said “Little Rob” was funny, respectful of elders and willing to help strangers. He wrestled in middle and high school, and also rode horses as a member of the East Coast Trail Riders.

He was one of four siblings. After his death, his mother, Helen Marshall, said she couldn’t have asked for a better son.

“I just could not imagine someone shooting him – taking his life like that,” she said. “He was just a lovable person.”

Police suspect the two women whose bones were found off Carolina Beach Road were killed in the summers of 2006 and 2007. But because they were discovered this spring, they are included in WPD’s 2008 statistics.

The bones, later identified as those of Allison Jackson-Foy and Angela Nobles Rothen, were found on April 26 in a small strip of woods behind restaurants in the 3500 block of Carolina Beach Road.

Jackson-Foy, 34, grew up in New York state, and was the youngest of four. She lived in Wilmington for two years with her husband and two daughters, before disappearing in the summer of 2006. Nobles Rothen, 42, of New Hanover County was the oldest of six children raised in Leland. She disappeared later. She had three children and three grandchildren. Family members said she was friendly, happy and cared for others. The women’s killings are unsolved.

Samya Miracle Dyer-Tindall and Logan VanDyke

Among those killed in 2008 are two infants who died from injuries which authorities allege they received at the hands of one of their parents.

Samya Miracle Dyer-Tindall died at 3 months old and Logan VanDyke was 4 months.

On May 20, Wilmington police charged Dyer-Tindall’s father, 20-year-old Dyrell LeVar Tindall, with first-degree murder and felony child abuse. His daughter was hospitalized with injuries on April 22 and she died three days later. The baby’s relatives had mixed feelings after the arrest. The mother believed Tindall’s account that the child choked while he was giving her a bottle, and he shook her in a failed effort to revive her. But the child’s maternal grandmother said she didn’t believe that story.

On July 29, Maegan M. Stuhan, 18, took her son Logan to the hospital for breathing trouble, according to officials with the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office.

Hospital staff notified deputies who later charged Stuhan with her son’s first-degree murder.

Tony Stevens Donaldson

On May 28, Wilmington police found Tony Stevens Donaldson, 56, beaten and seriously injured at his home on Brown Street. He died at New Hanover Regional Medical Center on June 7.

A woman who was beaten in the same incident told officers she heard Donaldson arguing with another man and ran into his home at 1117 Brown St. to help. When she did, both she and Donaldson were struck with a pipe.

Police arrested Wyshaun Richard Nath, 33, of Castle Hayne a month after the incident and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, according to Lucy Crockett, spokeswoman for the Wilmington Police Department. The charge was later bumped up to first-degree murder.

Emmett Cinque Irving

After getting into some trouble as a young man, family members said Emmett Cinque Irving had turned his life around.

The 26-year-old had a longtime girlfriend and a daughter less than 2 years old. For years, he’d helped raise his girlfriend’s other daughter, family members have said.

Irving was shot and killed July 26 in front of his home in the 800 block of Grace Street. His family and police have offered a total of $10,000 in rewards for information leading to an arrest and conviction, but his case remains unsolved.

Irving’s aunt, Joyce Clark, has said that in the months prior to his death, gangs tried to get Irving to pay to live in his neighborhood. She called police herself, she said, and asked Irving to file a report, but he refused.

Irving’s father, Emmett Irving Sr., said his son was a vibrant person who couldn’t stand to be by himself. As a young boy, Irving loved fishing at Wrightsville Beach or Fort Fisher, his father said.

Kenyatta Clark, Irving’s cousin, was one of several relatives who said young people don’t understand how one person’s death affects so many.

“What does our future look like with kids running around doing this?” she said. “We know this isn’t the first one, and it won’t be the last.”

Tarica Pulliam

Friends have said Tarica Pulliam, a 27-year-old mother, was a kind-hearted person with big plans. She’d worked as a detention officer at the New Hanover County jail for two years and hoped to become a sheriff’s deputy.

But early Aug. 6, as she left home for work, Pulliam was shot and killed by an ex-boyfriend whom she had sought a domestic violence protection order against.

Anthony Antwand Bowen, 30, later shot and killed himself as police closed in on him in Onslow County. He was on bond awaiting trial on charges of assaulting Pulliam when he shot her outside her apartment in Briarcliff Villas in northern New Hanover County.

Zenaido Mauss Zanchez

Zenaido Mauss Zanchez, 31, once told a friend he’d traveled for days from Mexico to Atlanta. Eventually he arrived in Wilmington, where he worked as a landscaper and sent money home to relatives in Veracruz, Mexico.

On Aug. 30, Zanchez was found in the street, stabbed to death, steps away from the trailer where he lived off Hooker Road. Wilmington police arrested one of Zanchez’s neighbors and charged him with first-degree murder. Police say Robert Mehalko, 45, killed Zanchez after an argument over a woman. Mark Gibeault, Zanchez’s friend and neighbor, said he was a fun-loving person and a hard-worker who was always willing to share what he had with others.

Michelle Francene Crutchfield

Michelle Francene Crutchfield would do what she could to help anyone who asked, her longtime friend Donna Johnston said. For that reason, her killing during an alleged robbery is even harder for Johnston to understand.

About 3 a.m. on Sept. 1, Crutchfield, 45, drove with her boyfriend to the 700 block of North 30th Street in the Creekwood public housing community. Police say two young men approached the driver’s side of Crutchfield’s truck and demanded money.

When Crutchfield said she didn’t have any, she was shot and killed. Police have charged two 17-year-old men in connection with her death.

Johnston and her mother, Betty Jo Phelps, said Crutchfield was well known in Wilmington and will be missed. She worked service-industry jobs, which suited her outgoing personality and love of people, Phelps said.

Daryon Terrell Walker

Early Nov. 12, Daryon Terrell Walker’s body was found near an elementary school about a block away from the 19-year-old’s home.

He’d been shot in the head. Evangelous has said detectives suspect they know who killed Walker, but they need help from the community to close the case.

Walker was a recent graduate of New Hanover High School and worked as a cook, relatives said. An uncle, Garry Hines, said Walker was loved by many and looked out for others in his immediate and extended family. WPD Detective Mike Overton said Walker’s killing was a brutal “cold-hearted” crime that the community shouldn’t stand for. He has asked anyone who knows anything about it to call police.

Montez Jones

Montez Jones, 25, left home Christmas Day for the grocery store and never made it back. He was found around 4 p.m. on the ground outside his home on 1315 Castle Street.

Witnesses told Jones’ girlfriend he was shot in the chest near the corner of 14th and Castle Streets and collapsed trying to get home. He died later at New Hanover Regional Medical Center.

On Christmas night, Wilmington police said they were looking for a suspect though they have not identified one or announced an arrest.

Jones was a father of three young children. Friends say he was funny and always had a smile on his face. His murder was the second shooting in Wilmington in two days. On Christmas Eve, a man was shot outside his home on Winterberry Court and was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Brunswick County

Jerome Roberto Echlos

A dispute among acquaintances in a home in Leland led to Brunswick County’s first shooting death, officials have said.

Jerome Roberto Echlos was shot in the chest and killed near the porch of the home he rented from the man who has been charged with his killing.

The shooting occurred at about 3:29 a.m. on Feb. 8 at 6786 Brandon Drive.

Authorities have said the suspect, Norris T. Johnson, arrived at the home in the middle of the night and fired a shot into the ceiling. Echlos had been in the house asleep, but went outside and argued with Johnson. During the dispute, Johnson fired one shot, police have said.

Adam Grant Bradshaw

Adam Grant Bradshaw was a 34-year-old married father when he was found dead April 29 in a wooded area near Ocean Isle Beach. He died of a single gunshot wound to the head.

Months later, Bradshaw’s wife filed a law suit suggesting the case was a real estate dispute that turned deadly. Bradshaw was acquainted with the accused, the suit says, and at least one of those charged was in financial distress around the time of the killing.

James Allen Murdock

James Allen Murdock was sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle near Calabash a little before 10 p.m. on May 8 when someone drove up and fired 20 to 30 shots, hitting him in the abdomen and killing him, officials said.

The shooting occurred outside a home on Pineclair Drive in Brunswick County. Murdock, 28, of Acres Lane in Calabash, was talking with someone when the shooter drove up in a dark-colored SUV and opened fire, according to officials with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities have also said they believe the shooter used an SKS or AK-47-style assault rifle. Less than two weeks after the shooting, deputies arrested Matthew Lee Baber, 25, of Sunset Beach and Norman Elliott Simmons, 23, of Ash, and charged them with murder.

Valerie Ann Burns

Valerie Ann Burns, a 49-year-old mother of two, died July 30 in the trunk of her own car, which was found burning in northern Brunswick County on July 30.

An autopsy showed she died of smoke inhalation. After an investigation in which authorities sought help from the public, Brunswick County sheriff’s deputies charged a 35-year-old man who had a lengthy criminal history, with her murder.

Carl Henry Alston, 35, of Leland was released from prison five weeks before Burns was found dead, according to N.C. Department of Correction records. One of Burns’ daughters said her mother was a fun-loving and caring person who was devoted to her 5-year-old granddaughter.

Donovan Charles Morrison and Calvin Mosley

On Aug. 23, two young men were shot and killed at a home in Calabash, though police haven’t said whether the case is murder or a justifiable homicide.

At 2:23 a.m., Brunswick County sheriff’s deputies responded to a home at 99 Calabash Road after a resident shot two men during a confrontation, authorities have said.

Donovan Charles Morrison, 22, of Ash and Calvin Mosley, 27, of Little River, S.C., were killed. Although police have said little publicly about the incident, one of the victims’ fathers said detectives told him the shooter believed he was being robbed. The fathers of both victims said authorities told them their sons were unarmed. Brunswick County District Attorney Rex Gore said the case is still being reviewed, and that authorities are awaiting the results of lab tests.

Mark Deegan Johnson

The Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of Mark Deegan Johnson’s killer.

On Oct. 20, Johnson, 54, was found dead at his home at 9826 Red Fox Run around 1 p.m. He died of a single gunshot wound to his upper abdomen.

Johnson lived in Brunswick Cove, a quiet community where one longtime neighbor said he’d never heard of another homicide occurring nearby.

Miller, chief deputy with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office, said investigators are following leads on the case every day.

Pender County

Martin Garza

Months before his first grandchild was born, Martin Garza, a 43-year-old construction contractor, disappeared.

Weeks later, on Feb. 16, he was found dead off U.S. 117 in Pender County, near the Duplin County line.

Garza, of Wilmington, was last seen Jan. 21 at the Walmart in Wallace. A day later, his 2006 GMC Denali was found in Johnson County. In April, after an investigation involving numerous agencies, Pender County sheriff’s deputies issued warrants for the arrest of two men who knew Garza.

Socrates Gomez Taboada and Wilmer Alexis Cruz Alvarado, who were 26 and 23 when the warrants were issued, are still at large.

Deputies have said they believe the men may be in their home countries of Mexico and Honduras.

<p>Homicides didn’t increase in Wilmington and its neighboring counties in 2008. It was a normal year.</p><p>Still, this year 23 people have been killed in homicide cases in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties as well as the City of Wilmington. Some were gunned down in the neighborhoods where they grew up, and several others were killed in their homes. </p><p>Two of the dead – Samya Miracle Dyer-Tindall of Wilmington and Logan VanDyke of New Hanover County – were infants killed by one of their parents, authorities allege.</p><p>Other victims like Tarica Pulliam and Sabya Monike Jacobs were mothers in their 20s, shot by men with criminal records. Of the homicides, 13 occurred in Wilmington, two in New Hanover County, seven in Brunswick County, and one in Pender County. </p><p>Chief Deputy Charles Miller of the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office said the detectives who work homicide cases get to know the victims’ families and see the pain the crimes cause.</p><p>We haven’t forgotten them, and we won’t forget them, said Miller, who has worked as a homicide detective. Of Brunswick County’s seven homicides, deputies are still seeking suspects in just one – the Oct. 20 shooting death of Mark Deegan Johnson of <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic9971"><b>Leland</b></a>. Miller says detectives follow leads in that case every day.</p><p>The Wilmington Police Department has closed eight of its 13 homicide cases. In both of this year’s homicides in New Hanover County, sheriff’s deputies have their suspects. And in Pender County, sheriff’s deputies have issued arrest warrants for two men they suspect shot a Wilmington man and then fled the country.</p><h3>Wilmington and New Hanover County</h3>
<p><b>Sabya Monike Jacobs</b></p><p>Sabya Monike Jacobs smiled often and was nice to most everyone she met, said Celestine Bristel-Johnson, who raised Jacobs since she was 2 weeks old.</p><p>Jacobs was fatally wounded Jan. 5, at 10:49 p.m., when she was shot while sitting in the front passenger seat of a Cadillac parked near the intersection of Meares and South Ninth streets. </p><p>Wilmington police say the 20-year-old mother was a bystander caught in an escalating cycle of violence involving two groups of young men. They started feuding early New Year’s Day, and it continued over several days with the rivals shooting from cars or at each other’s homes. One of the young men involved in that dispute was the driver of the Cadillac, according to police.</p><p>After Jacobs’ death, WPD Chief <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic9935"><b>Ralph Evangelous</b></a> said if witnesses to the earlier crimes had come forward, police could have intervened before the violence escalated to murder.</p><p>Six young men have been convicted of various charges in connection with Jacobs’ death.</p><p><b>Faheem Diaab</b></p><p>Donald Sanders feels like he lost two cousins in one day in 2008. Rasheed Diaab, 28, has been in jail since Jan. 17, charged with murder, and his older brother, Faheem Diaab, 38, is gone forever.</p><p>Police say Rasheed shot Faheem once in the chest with a handgun during an argument at the family home on East Stewart Circle.</p><p>Faheem Diaab was the oldest of five siblings and had two sons. He served in the U.S. Army and won a tough man competition in Wilmington.</p><p>Sanders said when he was growing up he looked up to Faheem, who treated him like a younger brother.</p><p>He was a real good person, Sanders said, adding that Faheem was always willing to help out friends and neighbors in the Turnkey and Creekwood communities.</p><p>Hope all is well, Sanders said, pointing to the sky, thinking of Faheem. Then, he said, I love both my cousins.</p><p><b>Jevorne Quaine Valentine</b></p><p>Early Feb. 22, officers responded to the corner of 10th and Campbell streets and found 22-year-old Jevorne Quaine Valentine dead. </p><p>Nine months later, a final suspect surrendered to police to face robbery and murder charges in connection with Valentine’s death.</p><p>Those charged are David Adrian Crummy, 20, and Andre Montrell Session, 19, both of Wilmington, as well as Norman Ramel McKenny, 19, of New York City.. A fourth suspect is also charged, though WPD hasn’t identified him because he was under 16 at the time of the shooting.</p><p><b>Robert Lee Marshall Jr.</b></p><p>Family members say Robert Lee Marshall Jr. headed out shopping after work on March 5 and never returned.</p><p>Police found him just after 9 p.m. in an industrial area near 13th and Marstellar streets, shot in the upper body and bleeding. He died soon after.</p><p>Police suspect Marshall was lured to Eighth and Marstellar streets and shot in a botched attempt to steal marijuana. Four teens have been charged in connection with his death.</p><p>Marshall, 23, was a graduate of Hoggard High School and had taken classes at <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic9937"><b>Cape Fear Community College</b></a>. He worked as a cook at Ruby Tuesday and planned on joining the U.S. Air Force.</p><p>Friends and family have said Little Rob was funny, respectful of elders and willing to help strangers. He wrestled in middle and high school, and also rode horses as a member of the East Coast Trail Riders.</p><p>He was one of four siblings. After his death, his mother, Helen Marshall, said she couldn’t have asked for a better son.</p><p>I just could not imagine someone shooting him – taking his life like that, she said. He was just a lovable person.</p><p><b><a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic67"><b>Allison Jackson-Foy</b></a> and <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic67"><b>Angela Nobles Rothen</b></a></b></p><p>Police suspect the two women whose bones were found off Carolina Beach Road were killed in the summers of 2006 and 2007. But because they were discovered this spring, they are included in WPD’s 2008 statistics.</p><p>The bones, later identified as those of Allison Jackson-Foy and Angela Nobles Rothen, were found on April 26 in a small strip of woods behind restaurants in the 3500 block of Carolina Beach Road.</p><p>Jackson-Foy, 34, grew up in New York state, and was the youngest of four. She lived in Wilmington for two years with her husband and two daughters, before disappearing in the summer of 2006. Nobles Rothen, 42, of New Hanover County was the oldest of six children raised in <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic9971"><b>Leland</b></a>. She disappeared later. She had three children and three grandchildren. Family members said she was friendly, happy and cared for others. The women’s killings are unsolved.</p><p><b>Samya Miracle Dyer-Tindall and Logan VanDyke</b></p><p>Among those killed in 2008 are two infants who died from injuries which authorities allege they received at the hands of one of their parents.</p><p>Samya Miracle Dyer-Tindall died at 3 months old and Logan VanDyke was 4 months.</p><p>On May 20, Wilmington police charged Dyer-Tindall’s father, 20-year-old Dyrell LeVar Tindall, with first-degree murder and felony child abuse. His daughter was hospitalized with injuries on April 22 and she died three days later. The baby’s relatives had mixed feelings after the arrest. The mother believed Tindall’s account that the child choked while he was giving her a bottle, and he shook her in a failed effort to revive her. But the child’s maternal grandmother said she didn’t believe that story.</p><p>On July 29, Maegan M. Stuhan, 18, took her son Logan to the hospital for breathing trouble, according to officials with the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office.</p><p>Hospital staff notified deputies who later charged Stuhan with her son’s first-degree murder.</p><p><b>Tony Stevens Donaldson</b></p><p>On May 28, Wilmington police found Tony Stevens Donaldson, 56, beaten and seriously injured at his home on Brown Street. He died at <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic9969"><b>New Hanover Regional Medical Center</b></a> on June 7.</p><p>A woman who was beaten in the same incident told officers she heard Donaldson arguing with another man and ran into his home at 1117 Brown St. to help. When she did, both she and Donaldson were struck with a pipe.</p><p>Police arrested Wyshaun Richard Nath, 33, of Castle Hayne a month after the incident and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, according to Lucy Crockett, spokeswoman for the Wilmington Police Department. The charge was later bumped up to first-degree murder.</p><p><b>Emmett Cinque Irving</b></p><p>After getting into some trouble as a young man, family members said Emmett Cinque Irving had turned his life around.</p><p>The 26-year-old had a longtime girlfriend and a daughter less than 2 years old. For years, he’d helped raise his girlfriend’s other daughter, family members have said.</p><p>Irving was shot and killed July 26 in front of his home in the 800 block of Grace Street. His family and police have offered a total of $10,000 in rewards for information leading to an arrest and conviction, but his case remains unsolved.</p><p>Irving’s aunt, Joyce Clark, has said that in the months prior to his death, gangs tried to get Irving to pay to live in his neighborhood. She called police herself, she said, and asked Irving to file a report, but he refused.</p><p>Irving’s father, Emmett Irving Sr., said his son was a vibrant person who couldn’t stand to be by himself. As a young boy, Irving loved fishing at Wrightsville Beach or Fort Fisher, his father said.</p><p>Kenyatta Clark, Irving’s cousin, was one of several relatives who said young people don’t understand how one person’s death affects so many.</p><p>What does our future look like with kids running around doing this? she said. We know this isn’t the first one, and it won’t be the last.</p><p><b>Tarica Pulliam</b></p><p>Friends have said Tarica Pulliam, a 27-year-old mother, was a kind-hearted person with big plans. She’d worked as a detention officer at the New Hanover County jail for two years and hoped to become a sheriff’s deputy.</p><p>But early Aug. 6, as she left home for work, Pulliam was shot and killed by an ex-boyfriend whom she had sought a domestic violence protection order against.</p><p>Anthony Antwand Bowen, 30, later shot and killed himself as police closed in on him in Onslow County. He was on bond awaiting trial on charges of assaulting Pulliam when he shot her outside her apartment in Briarcliff Villas in northern New Hanover County.</p><p><b>Zenaido Mauss Zanchez</b></p><p>Zenaido Mauss Zanchez, 31, once told a friend he’d traveled for days from Mexico to Atlanta. Eventually he arrived in Wilmington, where he worked as a landscaper and sent money home to relatives in Veracruz, Mexico.</p><p>On Aug. 30, Zanchez was found in the street, stabbed to death, steps away from the trailer where he lived off Hooker Road. Wilmington police arrested one of Zanchez’s neighbors and charged him with first-degree murder. Police say Robert Mehalko, 45, killed Zanchez after an argument over a woman. Mark Gibeault, Zanchez’s friend and neighbor, said he was a fun-loving person and a hard-worker who was always willing to share what he had with others. </p><p><b>Michelle Francene Crutchfield</b></p><p>Michelle Francene Crutchfield would do what she could to help anyone who asked, her longtime friend Donna Johnston said. For that reason, her killing during an alleged robbery is even harder for Johnston to understand.</p><p>About 3 a.m. on Sept. 1, Crutchfield, 45, drove with her boyfriend to the 700 block of North 30th Street in the Creekwood public housing community. Police say two young men approached the driver’s side of Crutchfield’s truck and demanded money.</p><p>When Crutchfield said she didn’t have any, she was shot and killed. Police have charged two 17-year-old men in connection with her death.</p><p>Johnston and her mother, Betty Jo Phelps, said Crutchfield was well known in Wilmington and will be missed. She worked service-industry jobs, which suited her outgoing personality and love of people, Phelps said.</p><p><b>Daryon Terrell Walker</b></p><p>Early Nov. 12, Daryon Terrell Walker’s body was found near an elementary school about a block away from the 19-year-old’s home.</p><p>He’d been shot in the head. Evangelous has said detectives suspect they know who killed Walker, but they need help from the community to close the case.</p><p>Walker was a recent graduate of New Hanover High School and worked as a cook, relatives said. An uncle, Garry Hines, said Walker was loved by many and looked out for others in his immediate and extended family. WPD Detective Mike Overton said Walker’s killing was a brutal cold-hearted crime that the community shouldn’t stand for. He has asked anyone who knows anything about it to call police. </p><p><b>Montez Jones</b></p><p>Montez Jones, 25, left home <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/holidays02"><b>Christmas</b></a> Day for the grocery store and never made it back. He was found around 4 p.m. on the ground outside his home on 1315 Castle Street. </p><p>Witnesses told Jones’ girlfriend he was shot in the chest near the corner of 14th and Castle Streets and collapsed trying to get home. He died later at New Hanover Regional Medical Center.</p><p>On Christmas night, Wilmington police said they were looking for a suspect though they have not identified one or announced an arrest.</p><p>Jones was a father of three young children. Friends say he was funny and always had a smile on his face. His murder was the second shooting in Wilmington in two days. On Christmas Eve, a man was shot outside his home on Winterberry Court and was taken to the hospital in critical condition.</p><h3>Brunswick County</h3>
<p><b>Jerome Roberto Echlos</b></p><p>A dispute among acquaintances in a home in <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic9971"><b>Leland</b></a> led to Brunswick County’s first shooting death, officials have said.</p><p>Jerome Roberto Echlos was shot in the chest and killed near the porch of the home he rented from the man who has been charged with his killing.</p><p>The shooting occurred at about 3:29 a.m. on Feb. 8 at 6786 Brandon Drive.</p><p>Authorities have said the suspect, Norris T. Johnson, arrived at the home in the middle of the night and fired a shot into the ceiling. Echlos had been in the house asleep, but went outside and argued with Johnson. During the dispute, Johnson fired one shot, police have said.</p><p><b>Adam Grant Bradshaw</b></p><p>Adam Grant Bradshaw was a 34-year-old married father when he was found dead April 29 in a wooded area near Ocean Isle Beach. He died of a single gunshot wound to the head.</p><p>Two weeks later, Brunswick County sheriff’s deputies arrested Craig Juan Bryant and Lora A. Moultrie, both 46-year-old Shallotte residents, and charged them in connection with Bradshaw’s murder.</p><p>Months later, Bradshaw’s wife filed a law suit suggesting the case was a real estate dispute that turned deadly. Bradshaw was acquainted with the accused, the suit says, and at least one of those charged was in financial distress around the time of the killing.</p><p><b>James Allen Murdock</b></p><p>James Allen Murdock was sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle near Calabash a little before 10 p.m. on May 8 when someone drove up and fired 20 to 30 shots, hitting him in the abdomen and killing him, officials said. </p><p>The shooting occurred outside a home on Pineclair Drive in Brunswick County. Murdock, 28, of Acres Lane in Calabash, was talking with someone when the shooter drove up in a dark-colored SUV and opened fire, according to officials with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities have also said they believe the shooter used an SKS or AK-47-style assault rifle. Less than two weeks after the shooting, deputies arrested Matthew Lee Baber, 25, of Sunset Beach and Norman Elliott Simmons, 23, of Ash, and charged them with murder. </p><p><b>Valerie Ann Burns</b></p><p>Valerie Ann Burns, a 49-year-old mother of two, died July 30 in the trunk of her own car, which was found burning in northern Brunswick County on July 30.</p><p>An autopsy showed she died of smoke inhalation. After an investigation in which authorities sought help from the public, Brunswick County sheriff’s deputies charged a 35-year-old man who had a lengthy criminal history, with her murder.</p><p>Carl Henry Alston, 35, of Leland was released from prison five weeks before Burns was found dead, according to N.C. Department of Correction records. One of Burns’ daughters said her mother was a fun-loving and caring person who was devoted to her 5-year-old granddaughter.</p><p><b>Donovan Charles Morrison and Calvin Mosley</b></p><p>On Aug. 23, two young men were shot and killed at a home in Calabash, though police haven’t said whether the case is murder or a justifiable homicide.</p><p>At 2:23 a.m., Brunswick County sheriff’s deputies responded to a home at 99 Calabash Road after a resident shot two men during a confrontation, authorities have said.</p><p>Donovan Charles Morrison, 22, of Ash and Calvin Mosley, 27, of Little River, S.C., were killed. Although police have said little publicly about the incident, one of the victims’ fathers said detectives told him the shooter believed he was being robbed. The fathers of both victims said authorities told them their sons were unarmed. Brunswick County District Attorney Rex Gore said the case is still being reviewed, and that authorities are awaiting the results of lab tests. </p><p><b>Mark Deegan Johnson</b></p><p>The Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of Mark Deegan Johnson’s killer.</p><p>On Oct. 20, Johnson, 54, was found dead at his home at 9826 Red Fox Run around 1 p.m. He died of a single gunshot wound to his upper abdomen.</p><p>Johnson lived in Brunswick Cove, a quiet community where one longtime neighbor said he’d never heard of another homicide occurring nearby.</p><p>Miller, chief deputy with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office, said investigators are following leads on the case every day.</p><h3>Pender County</h3>
<p><b>Martin Garza</b></p><p>Months before his first grandchild was born, Martin Garza, a 43-year-old construction contractor, disappeared.</p><p>Weeks later, on Feb. 16, he was found dead off U.S. 117 in Pender County, near the Duplin County line.</p><p>Garza, of Wilmington, was last seen Jan. 21 at the Walmart in Wallace. A day later, his 2006 GMC Denali was found in Johnson County. In April, after an investigation involving numerous agencies, Pender County sheriff’s deputies issued warrants for the arrest of two men who knew Garza.</p><p>Socrates Gomez Taboada and Wilmer Alexis Cruz Alvarado, who were 26 and 23 when the warrants were issued, are still at large.</p><p>Deputies have said they believe the men may be in their home countries of Mexico and Honduras.</p><p>David Reynolds: 343-2075</p><p>dave.reynolds@starnewsonline.com</p>